In many areas of dispensing, but in particular in the fuel combustion research area, it is necessary to finely control minute quantities of liquids in order to both obtain meaningful test data and permit analysis of the results.
A currently used conventional method of generating a continuous monodispersed stream of liquid droplets consists of the periodic vibration of a capillary fluid jet. The periodic disturbance of the jet surface at a precise frequency causes the jet to break up into uniformly sized and spaced droplets with one droplet being produced for each vibration cycle. To further accurately dispense a selected number of these liquid droplets, droplet dispensing has been modified to include electrostatic charging and deflection of the monodispersed droplet stream to adapt the dispensing to a particular purpose. However, in order to effect a charge on such droplets and thereby alter their flight it is necessary to use polar liquids with a high dielectric constant, such as alcohols, as the droplet source. Being limited to the use of polar liquids under these droplet formation and path control conditions severely restricts the utility of such systems. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system for accurately dispensing droplets of nonpolar liquids with a degree of control similar to that attainable with polar liquids.